Ever After: Rebekah Nielsen & Eric Francis

Eric Francis has been making mix CDs for Rebekah Nielsen since they met in high school — and over the past 12 years, Nielsen, 28, an HR director, has accumulated close to 100 of them.

This spring, right before their wedding at Café Brauer (2021 N. Stockton), Nielsen opened a gift from Francis, 28, a trader. “I pull out a Discman and inside is a CD,” Nielsen says. “All the songs [represented] memories of our lives.” Case in point: “Yellow” by Coldplay (their first concert together) and “Good Riddance” by Green Day, which ends every CD he’s made her.

From the moment they walked to First St. Paul’s Lutheran Church (1301 N. LaSalle) with their guests — a nod to the Italian tradition of walking through the village during a wedding ceremony — the day was marked with each of those memories, from the jazz trio (the groom played electric guitar in high school) to one of the mixtape songs, “Wake Me” by the Bleachers, playing during their first dance.

But it was a bright green neon ‘“Life is a party” sign that said it best: “That just explains us,” the bride says.